FINANCIAL TIMES: Hershey’s helping hand

As Hershey prepares a possible offer for Cadbury to counter Kraft’s hostile bid, all eyes are on former Goldman Sachs banker Byron Trott, who will try and attract private equity investors to the deal.

As frequent adviser to Warren Buffett, the 50-year-old convinced the Sage of Omaha to invest in Goldman Sachs when the bank’s shares were hit along with the rest of Wall Street. Mr Trott is one of the few bankers who has won public praise from Mr Buffett. “He understands Berkshire far better than any investment banker with whom we have talked and – it hurts me to say this – earns his fee.” wrote Mr Buffett in 2003. “Byron is the rare investment banker who puts himself in clients’ shoes,” he wrote in 2008.

With such endorsement, it has not been hard for Mr Trott to attract funds for his investment firm, BDT Capital Partners, which invests in family owned businesses. He raised more than $2bn, including financial backing from Mr Buffett. As a teenager in Missouri, Mr Trott persuaded his father to give him a $30,000 loan to launch a clothing shop. He joined Goldman’s St Louis office as a salesman and transferred to investment banking in 1988, rising to vice-chairman of investment banking and head of the Chicago office and Midwest region.